Shashank Bharadwaj

Abstract Quantum entanglement and the vibrational ontology proposed by string theory have periodically been linked, often loosely, to nondual metaphysical systems such as Advaita Vedanta. Much of this literature popularized by works such as Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics (1975) and Amit Goswami's The Self-Aware Universe (1993); has drawn sustained criticism from physicists and philosophers for treating structural resemblance as ontological equivalence. This paper takes a more constrained approach. It examines three specific constructs from Adi Shankaracharya’s Advaita Vedanta Vivanta (apparent transformation without change in the underlying substratum), the nondual status of Brahman articulated in the Manukyan Upanishad Bhāṣya, and the doctrine that empirical plurality is a superimposition (Aadhyas) upon a single substratum—and asks where, if anywhere, these constructs map onto specific, well-defined features of Bell-inequality-violating quantum entanglement (Bell, 1964; Aspect et al., 1982; Hensen et al., 2015) and the vibrational, string-based ontology described in contemporary theoretical physics (Greene, 1999). Rather than asserting equivalence, the paper proposes a "structural isomorphism, not identity" (SINI) framework that identifies four discrete points of formal resemblances: substratum invariance, relational property assignment, observer- and context-dependence, and vibration as a base descriptive unit while explicitly marking where each analogy breaks down. The paper argues that this constrained, falsifiable comparative method offers consciousness studies a more defensible bridge between physics and Vedanta than earlier popular treatments, and it closes with criteria for evaluating future physics–Vedanta comparisons. Keywords: quantum entanglement, string theory, Advaita Vedanta, Adi Śaṅkarācārya, nonduality, Vivanta, consciousness studies

Quantum entanglement and the vibrational ontology proposed by string theory have periodically been linked, often loosely, to nondual metaphysical systems such as Advaita Vedanta. Much of this literature popularized by works such as Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics (1975) and Amit Goswami's The Self-Aware Universe (1993); has drawn sustained criticism from physicists and philosophers for treating structural resemblance as ontological equivalence. This paper takes a more constrained approach. It examines three specific constructs from Adi Shankaracharya’s Advaita Vedanta Vivanta (apparent transformation without change in the underlying substratum), the nondual status of Brahman articulated in the Manukyan Upanishad Bhāṣya, and the doctrine that empirical plurality is a superimposition (Aadhyas) upon a single substratum—and asks where, if anywhere, these constructs map onto specific, well-defined features of Bell-inequality-violating quantum entanglement (Bell, 1964; Aspect et al., 1982; Hensen et al., 2015) and the vibrational, string-based ontology described in contemporary theoretical physics (Greene, 1999). Rather than asserting equivalence, the paper proposes a "structural isomorphism, not identity" (SINI) framework that identifies four discrete points of formal resemblances: substratum invariance, relational property assignment, observer- and context-dependence, and vibration as a base descriptive unit while explicitly marking where each analogy breaks down. The paper argues that this constrained, falsifiable comparative method offers consciousness studies a more defensible bridge between physics and Vedanta than earlier popular treatments, and it closes with criteria for evaluating future physics–Vedanta comparisons.